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Marcus Piner
Name: Marcus Piner Age: 43 Race: Imperial Gender: Male Height: 6'0 Birthsign: The Steed Class: Archer (Guard) Appearance Skin is healthy and darkened by the sun. His hair is dark brown, long and rough, and tied back into a ponytail at the back. His eyes are of the same color as his hair, and he has a strong jawline and high cheekbones. His skin is free of scars save a rude set of scars on his left hand, where it was impaled by an arrow. He is of an average build, with well-built shoulders and a strong back and a solid core due to his background. He is clean shaven upon arrival in Valton. He is nearly always smiling when around others (unless noticeably displeased). He moves with a quick and easy way, almost catlike in manner. His left arm is nearly covered with winding Yokudan characters - The fourth stanza of the Redguard poem "The Warrior's Charge". Skills and known spell-effects He's a moderately skilled marksman and no stranger to brawling. He's acrobatic and a strong sprinter. Despite his poor education, he is well-spoken (as an Imperial); this and his handsome appearance make him naturally charismatic, as is expected from an Imperial. He has decent medical knowledge and ability, though only through practice and lacking any magic ability. Clothing / armor Dark brown trousers and blackened doeskin boots of shin-height. A sand-colored, loose-fitting tunic is worn with the sleeves cuffed several times over. Above this is worn a heavy cloth vest, which falls to his knees and is bound at the waist with a wide, brown leather belt. He wears brown, cowhide gloves, with all of their fingers removed except for the index and middle fingers of the left glove to protect his drawing fingers. He wears a light blue, sand-worn scarf loosely around his neck and a rigid leather quiver on his back. Weapons An old Elven longbow and a mix of iron- and steel-tipped arrows and an iron utility knife (not fit for combat, but it still qualifies as a weapon) Miscellaneous items: A small coin purse with a meager amount of gold and a water skin, both on his belt. A travel pack (to be dumped when a home is established) contains a thousand gold pieces, a bedroll, a single potion to cure a common disease, a crust of hard bread, and a small amount of salted ham. Personality Marcus is light-hearted, cheerful, and open. The events of his life have made him amiable and outgoing, very compassionate despite his roguish appearance. His perception that his life is past its climax leads him to take everything in with less seriousness than situations might warrant. He is fiercely proud of his Redguard upbringing and service in Hammerfell, and views the Empire as a parasite to the provinces it governs. Despite this, he is still strongly opposed to the interests of the Aldmeri Dominion on principle. Major flaws Reckless - not born of overconfidence, but rather a lack of regard for his own life. He has a love of wine and women and predictably may pursue these to inappropriate degrees. He lacks any sort of formal education, meaning he is unaware of the customs, proper courtesies, and history except in the most basic of circumstances or bits that he learned during his travels (though he is fully capable of reading and writing). Physically, he cannot fully close his left hand or make any controlled use of the thumb. Background Marcus Piner was orphaned at an early age in the kingdom of Sentinel, growing up as a street urchin until the Great War came about. He threw himself into the service of the passing Imperial Legions in the messes and medical tents, still too young to fight. He aspired to eventually earn himself a spot in the line, with shield and spear in hand, alongside these disciplined legion troopers. By the time he came of age, the Great War had ended for the Imperials. However, it continued for several more years between the Redguards and the Dominion. The sight of the Legions leaving the city he'd joined them in previous months, in a retreat veiled by the White-Gold Concordat, never left Marcus, and he viewed the Empire with the same scorn as his countrymen ever since. The warriors of Hammerfell readily took this eager young Imperial under their wings, and Marcus did his best to become Redguard in all but blood. He was finally granted a sword of his own, a Ra Gadan scimitar rather than the Imperial broadsword. They taught him their customs as well as their trade. In the first years of the war, he became a proficient swordsman in his own right. In return, he offered his full devotion to the Redguard cause. This eager young Imperial, staying to fight unlike his older kinsmen, provided a refreshing source of motivation for the weary, veteran warriors he traveled with. In the final year before the Second Treaty of Stros M'Kai, this Imperial-turned-Forebear received a crippling wound to his sword hand by an elven archer in a skirmish. He lived out the final months of the conflict unable to fight, and extremely discouraged: swordplay was all he knew, and all that gave him value to his comrades. Far from being repulsed by this wounded youth, however, his closest brothers in arms consoled him after the signing of the Treaty. They forced into his mind the realization that, while the severed sinews of his hand would never provide the warrior's grasp necessary to grip a sword, the fingers could still catch and pull the bowstring. His friends presented him with a gift to cement this ideal: a bow, taken from a fallen elven sharpshooter, to remind him of what he and the warriors of Hammerfell accomplished. In peace, however, Marcus languished. He worked hard to improve his performance with the bow, and worked harder to find new purpose to his life. It seemed that every event he experienced was measured against those he had in war, and they all came up short. He eventually left his homeland for Skyrim, a land in which travelers said that trouble was brewing from within. After a short stay in the welcoming hold of Whiterun, he received word of a budding hold which was attempting to attract new citizens with a low starting price for homes. Seeking a purpose, and disdaining the life of the sellsword, Marcus Piner sold his horse and took the earnings to establish a home in and offer his skills to Valton as a hold guard.